2008

Last weekend we sent our newest contributor, Tim J. Nelson, to Baltimore for the Third Annual Virgin Mobile Festival. Let’s see what went down in Charm City…

Feeling festive? So many choices: Lollapalooza, now exclusively based in Chicago; Bonnaroo, in rural Tennessee; and Coachella, in the Mojave Desert – these top music festivals offer mucho musical diversity. However, a relatively new festival to the U.S., the Virgin Mobile Festival presented the entire history of rock-n-roll within the last two summers alone. For overall quality, it’s the clear choice and winner this summer.

This year’s acts included the grandfathers of rock Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, The Stooges (with Iggy Pop), and present-day rock giants Foo Fighters, STP, as well as eccentric crowd pleasers Gogol Bordello. And if you’re thinking that’s not diverse enough for your musical mojo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Latin-jazz-rock-flamenco-whatever uber-guitar duo wowed the crowd enough that at least one person (me) was thinking, “OK, that’s worth $97.50 alone.” You get the point. If not: a blistering display of flying fingers across strings plus guitar-body percussion equals WOW! The two only paused a few seconds between each offering – a real highlight. READ ON for more about the Virgin Mobile Festival…

It’s time once again to check in with irreverent mind behind Uncensored Interview’s blog The Shark for another installment of Uncensored Thursdays… Preston from Wild Sweet Orange is right –

If a Wilco concert were a storm, Jeff Tweedy would be the rain – the key ingredient that defines the makeup of the event. Without rain, there isn’t much of a storm. But thunder and lightning, in this case drummer Glenn Kotche and guitar wiz Nels Cline respectively, make the storm a hell of a lot more exciting.

On a gorgeous night in Brooklyn on Wednesday, a Wilco monsoon blew through McCarren Park Pool with the band on top of its game and clicking on all cylinders.

Tweedy, in a jovial mood from the outset, led his troops through 27 songs, a longer set than most of the shows on this tour. Weaving in the Total Pros horn section throughout the night, Wilco tore through mostly upbeat numbers, forsaking the lion’s share of their slower ballads for the night, until they ran into the venue’s 10 pm curfew. READ ON for much more on last night’s Wilco show…

Once again it’s time for a special guest to take the reigns of the B List. This week, guitar-maker Andrew Olson of AO Guitars discusses his favorite axes of all-time. AO Guitars makes high-quality instruments for the discerning musician…

This article first ran on January 10, but we liked it so much we’re running it again while we get up to speed this morning after seein’ Wilco last night.

I am a full-on guitar addict — there’s no denying it, and I’m okay with that. It’s cool, however, because my job is guitars. By that rationale, if your work is also your addiction, you win as far as I’m concerned. So when I got the call from Master Scotty B to do this killer column on my top 10 Favorite Guitars, I thought it was going to be a piece o’ cake. The problem is, I’ve been in love with so many guitars over the years that picking 10 is damn near impossible.

I tried to compile actual players’ guitars for this list, as opposed to off-the-wall axes, because they have that certain mojo that gets you fired up and ready to do the power-slide across the stage, ala Pete Townshend or Jables. The ordering is also debatable — depending on what I’m currently listening to, any of these guitars cold be at the top of the list, but the top four (being handmade, one-of-a-kind guitars) really stand out to me due to their inspirations on me and the building of my guitars. Enjoy, and go hug a guitar. Read on for Andrew’s Top 10…

After spending all of 2007 writing and recording a new album future Phish bassist Mike Gordon has come back in a big way in 2008. Mike’s new album, The Green Sparrow, contains some of the most straightforward rockin’ songs he’s ever written and shows off yet a different side of his wacky personality. To support the album, the man known as Cactus put together a tremendous group of musicians who seem to impress at every stop on their cross-country tour.

Mike recently took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about The Green Sparrow, his new band and the reunion we’ve all been waiting for.

Hidden Track: How did you come up with the title and the cover art for The Green Sparrow?

Mike Gordon: Well, I was going through song lyrics and then the Green Sparrow was a line in Morphing Again (eighth track on the disc). I really like the way the bird came in as a sort of a non-sequitor. It’s not really clear what the bird represents. I kinda like the mysterious nature of it. If I had to guess the bird seems to be a kind of a guardian angel of sorts. It just felt right to call it that.

We were gonna try to get a graphic designer to make the album cover, but it was really hard to find someone to see my vision through in a short time. So I just went and got all of this colored tissue paper tissue and sat in a room to do it myself. I feel I really captured the kinda vibe I was looking for. And it’s also a fantasy of mine to do a little more with visual arts. My mom is a painter and sometimes I feel envious that she’s making things that you can appreciate and stay the same over time, whereas music requires the passing of time to enjoy. The album cover is one thing I always thought I could do. Brett Dennen made his own album cover and I thought “oh shit, I can make my own album cover.” So I finally got a chance to.

READ ON for more of Scotty’s interview with Mike Gordon…

Both Some Dude and I couldn’t be more pumped to see Wilco perform tonight at Brooklyn’s McCarren Pool. Jeff Tweedy and the boys have been on fire lately, and the

There’s only one certainty in the realm of vault material released by Warren Haynes and the Gov’t Mule camp: we don’t know when any of it will see the light of day, but there will be more—and eventually, we’ll get it all.

With so many projects going on at once—Haynes is among everything else an idea man—there’s been a number of false starts for various promised projects (we’re still waiting for the official releases, for example, of those zany, jazz-rock blowouts the Mule cut with John Scofield in Georgia in 1999). But patience is rewarded, and if Haynes and his producers have painted themselves into a corner by calling this chronicle of the 2006 Christmas Jam Vol. 8 — now you’ve teed us up for Vols. 3-7, Mr. Haynes—we know they’ll get ’round to it eventually. What fun it must be to be a point person in the Mule archives. READ ON for more on this DVD…

If you’re a regular reader of Brooklyn Vegan or Prefix then odds are you’ve admired the stunning photography of Lori Baily. We’re sad to report that Lori’s parents were murdered